How to Install DokuWiki on FreeBSD 12

DokuWiki is an open source wiki program written in PHP that doesn't require a database. It stores data in text files. DokuWiki source code is publicly hosted on GitHub. This guide will show you how to install DokuWiki with Nginx on a fresh FreeBSD 12 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• Web server software supporting PHP; such as Apache, Nginx, IIS, Lighttpd, LiteSpeed. This guide will use Nginx.
• PHP version 5.6 or greater, newer versions are highly recommended. This guide will use PHP 7.2.

Before you begin

Check the FreeBSD version.

uname -ro
# FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE

Ensure that your FreeBSD system is up to date.

freebsd-update fetch install
pkg update && pkg upgrade -y

Install necessary packages if they are not present on your system.

pkg install -y sudo vim unzip wget bash socat git

Create a new user account with your preferred username (we will use johndoe).

adduser

# Username: johndoe
# Full name: John Doe
# Uid (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Login group [johndoe]: <Enter>
# Login group is johndoe. Invite johndoe into other groups? []: wheel
# Login class [default]: <Enter>
# Shell (sh csh tcsh nologin) [sh]: bash
# Home directory [/home/johndoe]: <Enter>
# Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default): <Enter>
# Use password-based authentication? [yes]: <Enter>
# Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]: <Enter>
# Enter password: your_secure_password
# Enter password again: your_secure_password
# Lock out the account after creation? [no]: <Enter>
# OK? (yes/no): yes
# Add another user? (yes/no): no
# Goodbye!

Run the visudo command and uncomment the %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line, to allow members of the wheel group to execute any command.

visudo

# Uncomment by removing hash (#) sign
%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Now, switch to your newly created user.

su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo tzsetup

Install PHP and PHP extensions

Install PHP, as well as the necessary PHP extensions.

sudo pkg install -y php72 php72-ctype php72-curl php72-dom php72-hash php72-iconv php72-gd php72-json php72-mbstring php72-openssl php72-session php72-simplexml php72-xml php72-zip php72-zlib php72-filter php72-ftp php72-tokenizer php72-calendar php72-pecl-APCu php72-opcache php72-phar php72-fileinfo

Check the version.

php --version
# PHP 7.2.14 (cli) (built: Jan 15 2019 01:14:39) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
#     with Zend OPcache v7.2.14, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Soft-link php.ini-production to php.ini.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini

Enable and start PHP-FPM.

sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=yes
sudo service php-fpm start

Install and configure Nginx

DokuWiki will run on any web server that supports PHP. In this tutorial we will use Nginx. If you prefer Apache or another web server, you can use that instead of Nginx.

Install Nginx.

sudo pkg install -y nginx

Check the version.

nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.14.2

Enable and start Nginx.

sudo sysrc nginx_enable=yes
sudo service nginx start

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/dokuwiki.conf and configure Nginx for DokuWiki.

server {

  listen [::]:80;
  listen 80;

  server_name wiki.example.com; # Replace with your hostname

  root /usr/local/www/dokuwiki;
  index index.html index.htm index.php doku.php;

  client_max_body_size 15M;
  client_body_buffer_size 128K;
  
  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ @dokuwiki;
  }

  location ^~ /conf/ { return 403; }
  location ^~ /data/ { return 403; }
  location ~ /\.ht { deny all; }

  location @dokuwiki {
    rewrite ^/_media/(.*) /lib/exe/fetch.php?media=$1 last;
    rewrite ^/_detail/(.*) /lib/exe/detail.php?media=$1 last;
    rewrite ^/_export/([^/]+)/(.*) /doku.php?do=export_$1&id=$2 last;
    rewrite ^/(.*) /doku.php?id=$1&$args last;
  }
  
  location ~ \.php$ {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /doku.php;
    fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
    fastcgi_param REDIRECT_STATUS 200;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
  }
  
}

Save the file and exit with Colon+W+Q.

Now we need to include the dokuwiki.conf file to the main nginx.conf file.

Run sudo vim /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf and add the following line to http {} block.

include dokuwiki.conf;

Test the Nginx configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo service nginx reload

Install DokuWiki

Create a document root directory.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/www/dokuwiki

Change ownership of the /usr/local/www/dokuwiki directory to johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /usr/local/www/dokuwiki

Navigate to the document root.

cd /usr/local/www/dokuwiki

Download the newest stable release of DokuWiki from the DokuWiki download page.

wget https://download.dokuwiki.org/src/dokuwiki/dokuwiki-stable.tgz

Unpack the DokuWiki tarball.

tar xvf dokuwiki-stable.tgz
rm dokuwiki-stable.tgz
mv dokuwiki-2018-04-22b/* . && mv dokuwiki-2018-04-22b/.* .
rmdir dokuwiki-2018-04-22b/

Change ownership of the /usr/local/www/dokuwiki directory to www.

sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/dokuwiki

Open the DokuWiki setup script, install.php, in your browser and setup DokuWiki. The setup script checks for the availability of required PHP functions and checks for needed file permissions. It also creates an initial administrator account and an initial ACL policy. To run the installer, open http://wiki.example.com/install.php in the browser and follow the instructions.

After a successful configuration, delete the install.php file from the DokuWiki root directory.

sudo rm /usr/local/www/dokuwiki/install.php

Your DokuWiki has been installed and you can now access and edit a functional wiki at http://wiki.example.com/.